Die Risiken, die der Konsum von Alkohol und anderen Drogen für den Konsumenten mit sich bringt, sind wohlbekannt, aber laut einer neuen Studie sagen viele Amerikaner – fast 160 Millionen –, dass sie durch den Substanzkonsum einer anderen Person geschädigt wurden
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1064753
4 Comments
Abstract
• Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence and overlap of secondhand harms from other people’s use of alcohol, cannabis, opioids, or other drugs and examine sociode-mographic and other correlates of these secondhand harms.
• Method: This cross-sectional analysis used data from 7,799 respondents (51.6% female; 12.9% Black, 15.6% Hispanic/Latiné; mean age = 47.6 years) in the 2020 U.S. National Alcohol Survey. Secondhand harms included family/marriage difficulties, traffic accidents, vandalism, physical harm, and financial difficulties. Weighted prevalence estimates provided nationally representative estimates of these harms. Logistic regression assessed associations between individual characteristics and secondhand harms.
• Results: Lifetime prevalence of secondhand harms from alcohol, cannabis, opioids, or other drugs was 34.2%, 5.5%, 7.6%, and 8.3%, respectively. There was substantial overlap among lifetime harms: Almost 30% of those reporting secondhand alcohol harms also reported secondhand drug harms. Significant correlates of secondhand substance harms included female sex (alcohol, other drugs); White (alcohol, opioids), American Indian/Alaska Native (opioids), and Black (cannabis) race/ethnicity; and separated/divorced/widowed marital status (opioids). Those reporting a family history of alcohol problems had significantly higher odds of reporting secondhand harms across substance types. Individuals who reported frequent cannabis use had higher odds of reporting secondhand alcohol and opioid harms compared to those with no cannabis use (aOR = 1.55; aOR = 2.38) but lower odds of reporting secondhand cannabis harms (aOR = 0.51).
• Conclusions: Although less prevalent than secondhand alcohol harms, 14% of participants reported secondhand harms from someone else’s drug use and frequently experienced secondhand harms attributed to multiple substances. Population-focused interventions are needed to reduce the total burden of alcohol and other drug use.
[Source](https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.23-00387)
So 14% of an 8,000 person study reported this, and you extrapolated 160 million people, meaning that the US population is actually underreported by 75% and should actually be over a billion people.
Substance abuse is so bad it managed to quadruple our population!
You can’t cause harm to someone else just by consuming drugs or alcohol. You have to do something I’ll advised as well.
Interesting they didn’t include tobacco …
A lot of the perceived harms are more than likely driven by societies attitudes about substance use in the first place. The other side could be fully opinion. If someones marriage ended “because” of opiate use for instance… It may be that the person using was actually fully functional, but the partner viewed the use as problematic and damaging and left despite it not actually being damaging at all.
The stigma of drug use effects things unnecessarily. You see it in how many people pre-recreational cannabis would always try to invent a medical condition they were treating when they in fact didn’t have one (though in its era it was technically out of necessity to get a permit, once the permit was obtained they still wouldn’t drop the ruse).
Also in how psychedelic users still often tout spiritual, mind expansion, or therapeutic effects even when they were 100% just dosing to enjoy it. This is because using a drug simply because you like how it makes you feel is generally thought of an unacceptable in mainstream culture, and looked upon as a weakness or flaw in character. This attitude colors and effects all human interaction, relationships and expectations down the line, even if totally unfair.